SNP Committed to National Football Academy Plan

Responding to a Labour claim that the Scottish Government would not honour its commitment to build a national football academy, Dundee City West MSP Joe FitzPatrick said:

“The National Football Academy is an SNP manifesto commitment and we were clear in our manifesto that we would fund it and many other projects from £250m savings from the construction of the Forth Replacement Crossing. It was not in Labour’s manifesto.

“SNP-led Dundee City Council, working with its partners, is taking forward the bid to bring the Academy to Dundee.

“The procurement rules for Scottish Parliament infrastructure projects were established by the Labour Administration at Holyrood in 2006 and all contracts have to be competitively tendered out.

“870 out of 1041 supply orders have gone to Scottish companies, 84% of the total – this will deliver 1,200 Scottish jobs and secure a further 3,000.

“Labour’s demand for a review of the Forth Crossing contracts doesn’t just put these jobs at risk, it also puts at risk other valuable projects like the National Football Academy.

“No Scottish firm submitted a tender for the steel fabrication subcontracts. This is because previous Westminster governments destroyed the steel industry in Scotland and in the UK.”